In 1852, Seattle pioneers cut down trees on the island and placed the logs aboard the ship Leonesa for export to San Francisco. When the invaders came down from the north, Nisqually canoes streamed through the portage and sank the enemy fleet, mainly with thrown rocks. Legend has it that the Nisqually tribe grew tired of this and formed a navy of large war canoes within Quartermaster Harbor. Tribes from Vancouver Island and northward oftentimes traveled to Puget Sound to kill local Indians and pillage their camps. The portage also played an important part in a vast battle between warring tribes. The portage was a preferred hunting ground, with woven nets spanning the short distance between the two islands to catch low-flying water fowl. Prior to these “discoveries,” Native Americans had lived on the island for centuries. At the time, there was a portage between the two islands. Charles Wilkes surveyed the Sound in 1841, he named Maury Island after William A. In 1792, during exploratory missions on Puget Sound, Captain George Vancouver named Vashon Island after his friend Captain James Vashon. Its history parallels that of the rest of the county, but its growth and development have occurred at a much slower rate, owing in main part to its inaccessibility to the mainland. Vashon-Maury Island is located in the middle of southern Puget Sound, midway between Seattle and Tacoma, within the boundaries of King County.
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